“The area of freedom, security and justice was created to ensure the free movement of persons and to offer a high level of protection to citizens. It covers policy areas that range from the management of the European Union’s external borders to judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters. It includes asylum and immigration policies, police cooperation, and the fight against crime (terrorism, organised crime, trafficking in human beings, drugs, etc.).
The creation of the area of freedom, security and justice is based on the Tampere (1999-04), Hague (2004-09) and Stockholm (2010-14) programmes. It derives from Title V of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which regulates the “Area of freedom, security and justice”.”
Europa.eu, Justice, freedom and security, http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/index_en.htm (accessed on April 30, 2012).
French translation: Espace de liberté, sécurité et justice
“The challenge facing those drafting the Amsterdam Treaty was to make the Union ‘more relevant to its citizens and more responsive to their concerns’, by creating ‘an area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ)’. Within such an area, barriers to the free movement of people across borders would be minimized without jeopardizing the safety, security, and human rights of the EU citizens. The compromise reached at Amsterdam led to three important changes. First, parts of the Maastricht third pillar were transferred to the first (or EC) pillar, or ‘communitarized’. Secondly, the institutional framework for issues that remained within the third pillar was streamlined. And thirdly, the Schengen framework was incorporated in the Union’s acquis.”
Cini, Michelle, European Union Politics, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007.
“The free movement of persons is a fundamental right guaranteed to European Union (EU) citizens by the Treaties. It is realised through the area of freedom, security and justice without internal borders. Lifting internal borders requires strengthened management of the Union’s external borders as well as regulated entry and residence of non-EU nationals, including through a common asylum and immigration policy.
The concept of free movement of persons came about with the signing of the Schengen Agreement in 1985 and the subsequent Schengen Convention in 1990, which initiated the abolition of border controls between participating countries. Being part of the EU legal and institutional framework, Schengen cooperation has gradually been extended to include most EU Member States as well as some non-EU countries.”
Europa.eu, Free movement of persons, asylum and immigration, http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/free_movement_of_persons_asylum_immigration/index_en.htm (accessed on April 30, 2012).
See related term: Schengen Agreement
Europa.eu, Free movement of persons, asylum and immigration, http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/free_movement_of_persons_asylum_immigration/index_en.htm (accessed on April 30, 2012).
Europa.eu, How the EU works, http://europa.eu/about-eu/index_en.htm (accessed on April 27, 2012)
Europa.eu, Justice and Home Affairs, http://europa.eu/pol/justice/index_en.htm (accessed on April 27, 2012)
Justice and Home Affairs, Stockholm Programme, http://www.se2009.eu/en/the_presidency/about_the_eu/justice_and_home_affairs/1.1965.html (accessed on April 27, 2012).
Cini, Michelle, European Union Politics, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007.
Council of the European Union, Internal Security Strategy for the European Union – Towards a European Security Model, Brussels, 23 February 2010, 5842/2/10, REV 2, JAI 90, available from : http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/10/st05/st05842-re02.en10.pdf (accessed on April 27, 2012).
Council Regulation (EC) No 2007/2004 of 26 October 2004 establishing a European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union
Dinan, Desmond, Ever Closer Union: An Introduction to European Integration, 3rd edition, 2005, Lynne Rienner Publishers, USA.
European Council, Report on the Implementation of the European Security Strategy – Providing Security in a Changing world, Brussels, 11 December 2008, S407/08, available from: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/eeas/security-defence/european-security-strategy?lang=en (accessed on April 27, 2012).
Guild, Elspeth, “Crime and the EU’s Constitutional Future in an Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice” (2004), European Law Journal, 10: 218–234.
Walker, Neil, Europe’s area of freedom, security, and justice, Volume 13, Livre 2, Oxford University Press, 2004
J. Monar, ‘The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice’, in A. von Bogdandy and J. Bast (eds.), Principles of European Constitutional Law (Hart/C. H. Beck/Nomos, 2010), 551-85, at 556.